High School Blues
by Sarryn
Summary: High schooL: Lina is NOT the main character, out of character-ness, and revealing pillow fight pictures...and that's a very general summary.
1. Default Chapter

High School Blues

Sylphiel Nels Lahda waved goodbye to her uncle as he sped off to work, ignoring the gentle rain that clung to her clothing and hair. Another school day to endure, another learning experience. She heaved a tired sigh and pulled her raincoat tighter about her as she stared at the immense doors of her high school with apprehension. Students streamed in, laughing and talking about what they had done over the weekend. A bitter feeling of solitude settled over her as she observed their carefree mirth. Even with her carefully selected group of friend she sometimes felt alone.

"Hey, Sylphy!" The brunette turned to see the redheaded Lina Inverse barrel towards her, pushing aside any student that got in her way. "Did you do the geometry homework?" 

"Don't tell me, you didn't do it," Sylphiel sighed, she pulled her backpack off and began to rummage through it.

"Well…No, but I have a good excuse this time," Lina declared as she grabbed the graph paper out of her friend's hand. "My sister got mad about how messy my room is—was—and she threw out almost everything, including my math work."

"You know, Lina, if you'd just clean up then this wouldn't have happened." The brunette was ignored as her friend hastily scribbled down the answers to the problems. "How about you finish this inside, it's starting to rain harder."

"Almost done…there! Thanks, Sylphy, you're a lifesaver," Lina beamed, stuffing her now finished work into her backpack. "Here's your homework."

Before she could take it back the pages were snatched out of her hand. "Lina, Sylphiel, I can't believe you'd stoop so low as to copy each other's homework. There are school policies against that," Filia ul Copt declared, shaking an admonishing finger at them. 

"Stuff it Filia, you're not our mother or the principle," Lina huffed grabbing the papers and handing it back to a flushing Filia.

"Lina, still you won't learn anything if you don't do it yourself," she remarked, blue eyes knowing. "Oh well, no use in trying to make you change. You're more stubborn than your sister."

"Sister," Lina stuttered.

"Oh that reminds me, I called your house yesterday to ask you if you wanted to help with this year's community service project, but you weren't there. Anyway, I talked to Luna and she said that you'd be happy to do it. I'm so happy. The meeting is this after school. Don't be late."

"Community service?" Lina gagged, appearing to be on the verge of fainting. "My sister…she's evil…she hates me."

"Don't worry, Lina, I'll be there and so will Amelia and I think Gourry is coming too," Sylphiel told the shaking girl cheerfully. Gourry Gabriev would be there and that was all that really mattered. The mere thought of him was enough to dispel the cloud of depression hanging about her.

"What about Zel?"

"Oh, I think he has a dentist appointment or something."

"He always manages to weasel his way out of things like this," the redhead muttered resentfully.

"Oh no!" Sylphiel cried as the bell for first period sounded. "We're going to be late!" She grabbed her friend's arm and dragged into the school.

****

One second, two seconds, three seconds…Sylphiel sighed as the second hand moved with agonizing slowness. It was only three minutes into first period and she was bored out of her mind. Fortunately she had made it to class in time, Lina hadn't been so lucky, her first period of class was on the fourth floor. The teacher took attendance with the rapidity of a constipated sloth. He had to call out the student's names several times in order to get their attention as they talked loudly amongst themselves. 

"Gabriev, Gourry Gabriev," the teacher called.

"Here, I'm here," a haggard voice called as the door banged open. "It's raining hard outside today." Gourry stood there in a large puddle of water as the rainwater dripped off his soaked clothing. Sylphiel sighed wistfully as she gazed at his wet T-shirt and dripping blonde hair. He gave her a small wave as he worked his way towards his desk to her right. 

"Here," she whispered as she handed him a small towel from her gym bag. She watched him surreptitiously as he dried his hair. First period was her favorite class when Gourry was there. 

****

On the way to her next class a strange thing happened to Sylphiel. It started out normally enough, the students crowding the hall ignored her tentative "excuse me" as she tried to push her way through the throng of teenagers. Then someone bumped into her from behind, she flailed her arms vainly for balance, but, alas, it was all for naught. Fortunately before she connected with the linoleum floor a pair of strong arms steadied her. 

"Thank you, Gourr…y…Xelloss?" He gave her an enigmatic smile and moved off. She remained, rooted to the spot in complete confusion. He had never done that before, in fact Gourry was the only one who bothered to keep her from falling, the others didn't care or didn't notice. To compound matters, Xelloss had never acknowledged her existence before. What had changed?

****

Strange encounters similar to the one with Xelloss continued throughout the day till lunch. Then a baffled and mildly alarmed Sylphiel spilled everything to her friends around the lunch table. Lina declared that they, the boys who had suddenly noticed her friend's existence, were trying to mess with her head, taking pleasure in tormenting delicate, young females. That whole speech occurred while the redhead ate four helpings of the cafeteria's mystery lunch special. Filia thought it was merely that they were finally realizing the true beauty of Sylphiel, to which the aforementioned individual blushed deeply.

Throughout the whole discussion Amelia began to act decidedly uncomfortable. She kept shifting in her seat and casting guilty glances around the table. 

"I know why," she exclaimed suddenly, a deep flush staining her cheeks. Everyone around the table, including the indifferent Zelgadis, regarded her with a surprised look. Her face turned a darker shade of scarlet and she stuttered the reason. 

"You what?" Sylphiel cried, her voice rising for the first time since…well, since anyone could remember. 

"Well, I had the pictures from Lina's sleepover developed yesterday and I was showing Zelgadis…" The aforementioned individual blushed even darker than Amelia and stared pointedly at his lunch as if it held the secrets to the universe. "Then Gourry came over and I showed him, unfortunately Xelloss came by and stole them. The injustice of it. I can't believe he did that."

"And Xelloss showed the rest of the school the pictures right?" Filia filled in, offering the humiliated Sylphiel a sympathetic look.

"Yeah. From what I heard Gaav beat him up and took them, then his brother Val stole them and Phibrizzo beat the crap out of him. As far as I know Phiby still has them." 

"What exactly was in those pictures?" Sylphiel asked in a strained voice, hands clenched tightly in her lap. Silently she prayed it wasn't of a certain thing they had done. "Please not the pillow fight."

"The roll I had developed was of the pillow fight." 

The room spun before her emerald eyes and dimly she heard Lina ask Zelgadis why he wanted to see their pillow fight pictures. Before she heard the response she slumped over in a dead faint.

****

"Are you alright?"

Slowly Sylphiel opened her eyes; the concerned faces of her friends surrounded her. She blushed deeply and sat up, ignoring the surge of nausea. She had passed out from shock…or maybe she had been dreaming.

"Nobody saw the sleepover pictures right?" she asked hopefully. Everyone exchanged worried glances.

"That happened." 

The world went dark again.

****

Thanks please review. That's about it. Turkey! Cranberries! Maybe not, I don't like them much…never mind…


	2. Chapter 2

High School Blues

The electronic beeping of the computer game filled the companionable silence in Sylphiel's room. The occasional curse from Lina, who was playing the game, only added to the normalcy of the situation. Amelia leaned over the redhead's shoulder and kept yelling thing like "There's one there!" and "Lina you have to hit it not the other way around" which prompted Lina to come back with phrases like "I'll hit you if you don't shut up" and "Stop distracting me!" Filia sat elegantly on a chair and calmly read her fashion magazine while Sylphiel sat on the bed covered in blankets.

"Amelia if you say one more thing I will throw you out the window," Lina declared as her character died again. Amelia sulked and walked away.

"So everyone's seen them?" Sylphiel asked softly. Everyone paused to exchange guilty looks, much to her discomfort. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for them to get stolen," Amelia cried collapsing to the ground.

"The thing is, of course," Filia began, "That all the boys you met today had a different reaction to you than before they saw the pictures. Personally I think it's a wonderful opportunity, except for Xelloss. He's such a jerk."

"Except that Zel didn't seem any different. He's like a rock and not the dependable kind, but that emotionally constipated kind." Everyone gave Sylphiel a strange look to which she blushed and stammered and apology.

"Except you're wrong. He couldn't meet your eyes all during lunch. Man, you should have seen him blushing," Lina chortled falling out off her chair. "Ow." Amelia flushed in annoyance and muttered something scathing under her breath.

"What about Gourry? He didn't act any differently." She waited impatiently for one of them to correct her, to say that he'd noticed her. When they all nodded in agreement she couldn't stop the defeat that crawled inexorably over her. "I see. Well, that's…that's good. I wouldn't want to lose his friendship." 

She swallowed the lump of sadness in her throat and sank into the down blankets around her. He hadn't noticed her; he'd never notice her at this rate. Ever since they were little he had treated like a friend and nothing more. At an early age she had decided that they were going to be married and live in a nice house. With the arrival of Lina things had changed. She couldn't hate the redhead, but she did envy her relationship with Gourry. They weren't dating or anything, but they had a connection that she could only dream of.

"Don't let that get you down, Sylphy. Talking about rocks. He's got them in his head," Lina declared, coming to flop down next to the depressed brunette. "The only thing he ever 'notices' is food. So unless you dress like a roasted chicken and cover yourself in gravy, he won't notice you." She giggled half-heartedly, cheeks turning a pale shade of pink as she thought of dressing as a chicken.

"Thank you, Lina."

"Don't mention it, S-girl. That's what I'm here for." Lina rolled off the bed plopped herself beside Amelia. "So do you have any copies? I want to see what exactly was on them."

"I think so. Hang on." The girl pulled her backpack over and began to rummage through it. After a minute or two she pulled out a packet of developed photos. "Here."

Lina took the offered envelope and quickly pulled out the pictures. She burst out laughing as she flipped through them.

"Sylphy, I think you're in trouble."

"Why?" Sylphiel crawled off the bed to join the rest of the girls who stood giggling over the photos. Without a word Filia handed her a picture, eyes watering from laughter. 

"Oh…my…god…"

"I'd say, 'oh my goddess' if I were you," Filia teased. 

Sylphiel stared at the offending piece of photographic work in horror. The one that had been passed to her revealed her wearing her pajamas. That would have been fine if they had been any pair but the purple ones. The bottoms were pajama shorts, as in silk short-shorts, and the top was a spaghetti-strap tank top of the same material. To make it even worse she had been captured in a rather compromising position. In fact from the angle the picture had been taken at anyone could see straight down her shirt, and tell she wasn't wearing a bra, as she bent down to grab a pillow off the floor.

The next photo showed her swinging the pillow over her head, shirt stretched tight across her chest, to bring it down on top of Lina who had Amelia in a strangle hold. The next was of Amelia running away from a pillow wielding Lina and a nice shot of Sylphiel's posterior.

"I…I…" She fainted dead away again.

****

I know, she's fainting a lot. Oh well. Please review, I wanna know if people like this or not. Please? Thanks for reading!


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